Life Over Grad School

Eating Local in the Summer Is Easy

Kristen — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 01:26:26 +0000

Despite the sweltering, miserable, suffocating heat of Mississippi in the summer, I still adore this time of year because I am able to grow a lot of my own food, watch hummingbirds (from a distance though because they’re a little too much like big bees for my taste), and have daylight until after 8pm. I also enjoy buying vegetables from an old man on the side of the road and going to the farmers’ market. Side note: This year, my husband and I are even running a booth at the market. We bake and sell fresh bread. It’s tasty. Read about it here. End side note.

My most favorite thing about summer, though, is the amount of fresh and local produce I am able to eat. Case and point, this meal, in which nearly everything was either locally made or locally grown. For dinner, we had hamburgers and grilled corn. I shall take you through the ingredients, so you can see just how easy it is to eat locally, especially in summer. I like to use the word “shall”; it’s far too under-used.

First, the ingredients: bread, mustard, tomato, lettuce, onion, pickles, cheese, burger, smoked jalapenos, corn, olive oil, salt, pepper.

Now, the local ingredients:

Bread–fresh rolls/buns made by the husband (they were awesome, by the way. Best yet, I think.)

Tomato, onion, corn–bought from local farmers at the local market

Burger–made of venison; from a deer killed by our friend this spring

Jalapenos–grown in a friend’s container garden, smoked on our grill

Pickles–cucumbers grown in my garden and pickled myself

And the non-local ingredients:

Mustard, cheese, lettuce, salt, and pepper–from Kroger

Olive oil–from Whole Foods

Quite frankly, I’m pretty proud of our home-grown, home-made meal. I would love to declare the whole thing local, but can anyone really live without olive oil, mustard, salt, and pepper? I can’t. I also cannot live without cheese. At least not for now. I could have lived without the lettuce this time, though. Although a burger with lettuce is better than one without, I could have lived without it. Lesson learned there.

I encourge you to seek out your local farmers’ market (or road-side stand). I think you’ll be surprised just how much you can find there and how tasty and ripe it is. It might just get you out of a food rut and force you to try new foods and recipes–reason enough for me.

Check out how awesome that bun looks. It tasted even better. Yay for spouses who bake.

Look how pretty corn is when the husk is still there.

On Weddings and Marriage

Kristen — Mon, 31 May 2010 12:50:34 +0000

Today is my wedding anniversary and a holiday and yet I still woke up at 5:40 this morning. Go figure. Now that it’s 7:10 and a little closer to the time I normally wake up, I am enjoying the day and the quiet in the house. Dogs and husband still asleep, and I’ve already been out for a stroll around the yard to check on my garden.

I must admit that our wedding was pretty awesome–really, it was. We had all our favorite friends and family there, tons of tasty food, and a ten-piece soul band. I mean, it really was a good time. Had I been a blogger at the time, I would have given these five tips for people planning a fun wedding (as opposed to a Baptist mints and punch wedding):

Top 5 Fun Wedding Tips

1. Plan your wedding around the reception. While the ceremony is the most important part (you do have to get married after all), you will spend most of your time at the reception (probably 90%). It’s just simple math and logic–focus on where you will spend most of your time.

2. Unless you’re a professional, don’t DIY your most important elements. Most important to us were food and music. Therefore, we found a killer caterer, the aforementioned band, and three amazing ceremony musicians–organist, timpanist, and trumpeter. We DIY-ed the invitites and some of the table decorations.

Result of planning a fun wedding? Lots of dancing and smiling.

3. Have good food. Even if you aren’t a foodie, you should still have the best food you can find/afford. People judge you on your food, and no one wants to be poorly judged for a party thrown in his or her honor. Also, the reception should be a gift to your guests. Be nice and give them good food. Also give them good wine. Our caterer substituted the traditional merlot and chardonnay (blech) for cabernet sauvignon and sauvignon blanc (yes!) at no extra charge.

4. Share time with just your husband/wife between the ceremony and reception. Our venue had a little room that was private, and the caterer brought us our drinks of choice and plates of food. Although we were both too excited to eat much, this is one of my most favorite memories. We were able to sit and say sweet things to each other, actually visit with one another for the first time that day.

5. Buck tradition but keep tradition. At the end of the day, if you’re getting married, you’re participating in a pretty traditional thing. Don’t be ashamed and have some traditional elements–maybe a conservative dress, old-timey flowers, or classical music at the ceremony. Don’t be too traditional though–embrace what makes you two the couple you are and forget about tradition. Have stylish bridesmaids’ dresses, a sushi bar, or pink champagne.

Although remembering our wedding is so much fun, I have been married for two years now and should reflect on those years. I’ve learned a lot in those years and am still happy I married him. I’m pretty sure he’s still happy he married me, so that’s good too. Because this is a blog about learning, I’ll recount a few of the lessons I’ve learned in the past two years.

Lessons Learned

1. Be nice and thoughtful.

2. Surprise one another ocassionally.

3. Don’t nag unless necessary, but when necessary, nag.

4. Try to not compete with one another–for better jobs, money, talent, etc.–instead, appreciate the other for what he or she brings to the relationship.

5. Be honest.

And a final list.

What I Love Most about Edmond

1. He is creative.

2. He is always willing to help me whenever I ask him to.

3. He loves his mother.

4. He respects me more than anyone else does.

5. He encourages me.

It’s Probably Offensive That I Was Offended

Kristen — Mon, 10 May 2010 22:52:36 +0000

I went to buy some drinking stuff Saturday–a bottle of champagne and some sweet tea vodka. If you haven’t tried it, you should stop reading and go get some ASAP. It really is more important than my being offended. Do please come back and read with drink in hand though.

So I went to the closest liquor store where there is this especially chipper cashier. Especially chipper. Exceptionally chipper. She’s really just too chipper. Anyway, I’ve encountered her before, and I must admit, she drove me a little crazy, but on Saturday she flat out offended me. After asking me about five times how my day was (it only takes 2.5 minutes to pay for two bottles of booze, right?), she proceeded to wish me a happy mother’s day.

I realize that she was probably just saying this because she is incapable of not talking for even five seconds, but really? Why happy mother’s day? Do I look like a mother? And, if so, what exactly does a mother look like? I have a lot of mom friends, and they are mostly distinguishable from one another.

I’m sure some would say something like, “Geez [or worse], Kristen, there’s nothing wrong with being a mom.” To that, I would reply, “Of course there isn’t.” I very much love my own mother and my mom (and mom’s) friends, so I don’t mean to discredit moms, but isn’t there something wrong with just wishing a random woman (sans children in tow) a happy mother’s day? I think there is.

This is sort of up there with congratulating people on getting pregnant, or better yet, birthing the baby, or on getting married. Celebrate? Absolutely. Congratulate though? Seems a strange sentiment to me. A discussion probably best suited for another day.

I came home to see lots of people wishing me, and everyone else, a happy mother’s day on Facebook, claiming that all people have mothers. This is true, but is that really reason to wish them a happy mother’s day? We all know secretaries and nurses, but to my knowledge, we only wish happy days to secretaries and nurses on those days. Likewise, I think grandparent’s day is reserved for grandparents.

You may think I’m being cynical, even bitchy, but I think I was justifiably offended. After all, she didn’t wish the man ahead of me a happy anything.

Lessons learned:

People should be okay wih (and even embrace) silence if all they can do is ramble.
I will need a Xanax if I am to ever go back in that store with that chipper cashier.
I should learn to let things roll off my back more.
I enjoy not letting things roll of my back, so I get to have a soapbox later.

Earlier Lessons

Kristen — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 23:40:39 +0000

Although this blog focuses on what I am currently learning, I have, of course, been learning for a while, and this weekend I was reminded of some especially valuable lessons.

1. Funny friends are the best friends. I got to see one of the funniest this weekend, and she, true to form, kept me laughing the entire time I was with her.

2. Allowing things out of your control, such as a wedding day filled with tornadoes and rain, to roll off your back means you have arrived and are officially an adult. (I’m not there quite yet, but my friend who got married this weekend is a pro.)

3. The words “since” and “because” should not be treated as synonyms. “Since” goes with time (Since 1980, I have had brown hair), and “because” goes with reason (Because I have brown hair, grays show up a lot). Why, oh why, must people misuse “since”? (I realize this one is a bit unrelated to the others, but I’ve been editing since–properly used–I got back to Starkville.)

4. When staying at someone’s house, you should always make the bed before you leave. Moms who teach this lesson are good moms.

5. Being hungry at 2:00AM after having a few drinks at a super-fun wedding, no matter how staunch you are in your convictions, will probably result in very poor eating decisions. For example, you may, despite your best intentions, ask your friend to go through the Arby’s drive-through, resulting in quite a bump in your “no non-local meat” agreement with yourself. (Good friends console you and tell you that you aren’t a bad person afterall.)

Soup for a Sore Throat

Kristen — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:00:36 +0000

I was sick a few weeks ago. Really sick. Ed’s band had a show out of town, so I was home alone for the weekend and wanted to cook something that would last until I was well. My option: thaw out some chicken stock, throw some vegetables in a pot, and sit on the couch while it cooked. It was pretty good, so I’m now (several weeks later) going to share the recipe.

You will need:

3-4 carrots

1 onion

3-4 garlic cloves

1 turnip

2-3 stalks of celery

herbs of choice

6-8 cups of chicken stock (homemade is best)

Directions: Chop it all to desired size (I like big pieces) and cook until tender. Salt to taste. Add lots of black pepper.

If you are sick, I recommend you do what I did–throw it all in a pot and then go sit on the couch for a few hours and wait. If you want the soup quickly, you should cook the carrots first, then add the rest until almost tender. Then add stock and cook for 30 min. or so until all is tender.

I had some leftover chicken we had baked ealier in the week, so I chopped that up and threw it in too, but normally I would have just had veggies. The soup was a nice, light meal that warmed me up and soothed my throat. On a regular day, I might have called it bland because I’m normally one for lots of flavor and spice, but on this day, it was perfect. I even mustered the energy to take a picture for the blog.

I love my pretty dishes.

Springtime Blooms Both Outside and In

Kristen — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 03:28:28 +0000

It’s been spring around here for a while, but I’m just now getting around to posting about it. Frankly, I’ve been either working through it or sitting out on my back deck enjoying it. Now that nearly everything is in bloom (azaleas still to come), I’ll show you what I’ve been enjoying for the last few weeks.

The quince was the first to bloom, and what a show it puts forth. These bushes are quite humdrum throughout most of the year—little foliage and thorny branches—but they sure make up for it in the early spring when they fill with beautiful pink blossoms. The buds were out in December, when I still didn’t know what they were, and I was concerned that they would end up getting frost bitten, but they withstood the harsh weather and have been in bloom for the past month and half or so. I’ve found that this is a wonderful time to prune them because they also bloom well indoors—although the flowers are much paler when forced to bloom inside. I recommend choosing a branch with plenty of flowers already in bloom and still some buds left to bloom to ensure that you have both bright flowers and long-lasting arrangements. I have about ten or fifteen around the yard, and some are quite overgrown, so I am pruning mine back a good bit. Unlike many shrubs, you need to prune these to the ground, so I have been cutting them back by about a third by pruning canes at or near the ground level. This should encourage new shoots in their places (or so I read).

Early blooming quince on the mantel

Right behind the quince were the daffodils and forsythia. Both are still in bloom and have put on quite a show. We have about three times as much forsythia as quince, so my yard is covered in yellow right now. These also bloom well indoors. I have filled numerous vases with stems, and the blooms have lasted over a week. You should know that until recently I thought these were yellow bells (because that’s what someone told me they were when we moved in last year), but pictures on the Internet have confirmed that they are forsythia. I have much enjoyed snipping forsythia branches and daffodil clusters for the house.

Forsythia arrangement in the den

The quince is on its way out, and the forsythia is starting to turn mostly green, but the bridal-wreath spirea is filling their places. What looked like overgrown nothing last summer is now a beautiful, delicate hedge of shoots of tiny white flowers around my yard this spring. I have tucked stems of these in around the daffodils and forsythia inside, and it has given the arrangements such a nice homey feel. Of all the flowers in bloom in my yard right now, these are the most old timey to me, and I love them because they make me feel like I’m in the country or at a grandmother’s house. I’ll still have to prune many of them this year, but I’m glad they aren’t as ho-hum as I once thought.

Daffodils and spirea on the dining table

So far this spring, I have learned how fortunate I am to have ended up buying a house with a yard that was tended by people who took care to choose shrubs with coinciding, complimentary blooming times and people who have unknowingly taught me that just because a plant doesn’t look like much at certain times of the year doesn’t mean that it is worthless all together.

I Killed a Frog

Kristen — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:02:44 +0000

Spring doesn’t normally conjure up images of dead frogs, but, for me this year, it does. We bought a house last summer, and the yard (I’m tempted to call it a garden after having finished Michael Pollan’s Second Nature) is beautiful but quite overgrown. We’ve recently been working on the four raised beds/islands that will soon be our herb and cut-flower gardens. They had a variety of bulbs, roses, and other plants in them, but, in order to use them as we wanted, we had to break them up and get out the weeds. This meant a lot of work with the hoe (and the hoe-like tool that has tines). The result: I killed two frogs. One I severely injured and sliced open his jaw. The other, well, I just can’t say much other than I accidentally murdered him. He ended up impaled on one of the tines of my hoe-like tool. It was quite sad for me. I don’t know how he ended up three to four inches below ground level (hibernation, perhaps?), but I definitely found him there and accidentally killed him.

Eyes closed, hands folded, I think he's religious.

You should click on the picture, to get the full effect–it isn’t gruesome, just looks like he is perched (in prayer?) on the tool. The experience was like Braveheart (i.e., guts spilling out) but, instead of Mel Gibson yelling “freedom!,” this frog just occassionally opened his eyes if I squeezed too hard when trying to remove him from the tine. All in all, it was really quite emotional for us both.

Lessons learned:

1. Creatures live in dirt.

2. Although they live in dirt, sometimes creatures still have to go when you’re working the dirt.

3. Frogs are quite passive, even when their guts are spilling forth in death.

Boardtown Organics: My Solution for Local, Free-range Chicken and Eggs

Kristen — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:41:09 +0000

As you all know, I have sworn off non-local meat, and, although Sanderson Farms is a Mississippi company, that’s not quite what I was going for with “local.” So far this year, my meals have been mostly meatless until recently when I got a deer, just about as local as you can get. But I was looking around on Local Harvest and discovered a family farm just outside my door. Boardtown Organics (Boardtown, by the way, is what Starkville was before it was Starkville) is a small operation just outside the city limits, but I don’t even have to go there to pick up the food. I just order a day ahead and go to Main Street and pick up my order. How easy is that?

Living in the city limits, I cannot raise my own chickens, so this place is perfect for that. I ordered one whole chicken and a dozen eggs. Both were fantastic! If you haven’t had farm-fresh eggs, then you simply must find the nearest person who has laying hens and ask for some. They are wonderful. Or contact Boardtown Organics if you’re in the area, only $2.50/dozen. That’s a good dollar cheaper than “free-range” varieties at Kroger. And so much better, I might add. Orangey center that doesn’t run all over the place when you break the egg in the skillet.

We should have weighed it, but we didn’t. Suffice to say that the chicken was huge. It fed my husband and me for over a week. We grilled the legs, wings, and thighs. Pan fried one-half of the breast (which fed us both) and topped it with olives. Halved the other half of the breast and used one half to top a salad and the other half to make chicken fried rice. Of course we had leftovers, and those were mostly mixed together for sandwiches, salad, etc. We also made chicken stock for the first time by using the bones and meat that clings to the bones. Considering the entire chicken only cost $10, we ate some pretty cheap meals, and all were absolutely delicious. I have read that truly free-range, happy chickens (I think this makes them happy) that are allowed to roam about and eat bugs taste more “chickenier,” and I can now say that I agree. May sound crazy, but, somehow, I could taste the chicken more. It didn’t just taste like whatever I seasoned it with. It tasted like chicken.

Their Web site advertises a CSA (community supported agriculture) effort this year, but I plan to grow pretty much all I’ll need on my own. As for chicken, they are almost out of the last batch processed, but I’m told they should have more ready in May.

This is in the biggest bowl we own.

Lessons learned:

1. Local, responsibly-raised food tastes better.

2. Local, responsibly-raised food, despite all expectations, is cheaper than factory food from somewhere else.

3. Owners of local, family farms are kind and honest.

Take a look at that half a breast. Huge. I know.

Deer Meal #1: The Deerburger Steak

Kristen — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:55:32 +0000

I know you’re all anxiously awaiting a venison update, and I’ve now got one to share. About two weeks ago, we got our deer. I bet she was pretty, but, when she arrived to us (and by arrived, I mean that I picked her up under an overpass in nowhere Mississippi around 7PM—I think this makes the experience so much better), she had already been processed and came in vacuum-packed packages of ground meat, steak, roast, and cured sausage. I quickly thawed out one package of the ground meat (probably about 1.5 lbs. or so) and proceeded to make “hamburger” steak with mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes, and roasted broccoli, some of my all-time favorites for home cooking.

It was awesome. In fact, all who fear venison for its “gamey” flavor should give this meal a try. I could tell a difference, which is of course good because it is in fact a different animal than the cow, but, overall, it was like eating hamburger steak.

Deer steak:

Mix 1-1.5 lbs. of ground deer with ½ onion, chopped, and 2-3 chopped garlic cloves. Add a couple tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce (the best stuff ever), some salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Add a teaspoon or so of soy sauce. Once mixed, divide into patties that are reasonable in size, my batch made eight. Put about 2-3 tbsp. olive oil in the bottom of a cast-iron skillet and proceed to pan fry.

My first meat meal of the year sure was delicious. And I felt good about myself for eating local, too. Score. Double score. Here are some leftovers:

We're cookin' with gas now, baby.

Five Facts about Almonds

Kristen — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:59:08 +0000

Since succombing to my cashew allergy, I have tried to eat more almonds. They’re healthier anyway, right? Well, I’ve learned quite a bit about them:

1. About 23 almonds equals one ounce.

2. There is even a tin you can buy that holds exactly one ounce.

3. Almonds come from California.

4. Almonds are first on the Mayo Clinic’s list of super foods. (To be fair, they are first because of alphabetical reasons, but, hey, it sounds good to say they’re first, right?)

5. One serving (one ounce/23 almonds) has half of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin E.

This tin seems a bit silly to me.